Two steps forward, one step back

Cathryn Henderson highlights the honour of the Star ratings and celebrates Chenin.

With two 5 Star rated wines arising in this issue's tastings, we were thoroughly elated at the clear presence of quality offerings in our midst.

 

Joining the roll of honour of wines that have received our ultimate accolade are the D'Aria The Songbird Sauvignon Blanc 2009 and the Kleine Zalze Vineyard Selection Barrel Fermented Chenin Blanc 2008, the latter named the best wine in the our annual Chenin Blanc Challenge.

Simultaneously, however, we have had to endure the disappointment of finding that a wine rated 5 Stars in last year's Sauvignon Blanc Top 10, the Havana Hills 2000, did not comply with entry requirements, compelling us to strip it of all accolades (see p. 11 and p. 92). Progress is arduous as ever, it would appear.

It is essential that the focus of awards should not be skewed toward receipt of the award itself, but also on the process and standards specified. Love or hate them, wine competitions and ratings are geared toward raising the bar among producers as well as helping the consumer make the most informed purchase decision.

Going forward, the emphasis is to uphold the honour of achieving such an accolade from WINE magazine. From our side, we continue to do everything we can to preserve the integrity of our tastings, and to ensure that top ratings are a meaningful and desirable achievement, and a valuable guide to wine lovers.

On a positive note, the good showing in this year's Guala Closures Chenin Blanc Challenge saw not only one wine rated 5 Stars, but three 4½ Stars and seven 4 Stars. It lifts my spirits enormously that we yet again have reason to celebrate SA Chenin as among the world's finest wines. It also provides a further opportunity to encourage you to embrace this interesting variety, if you are not already in the midst of an ardent exploration.

For me, Chenin has a certain mystique, not the least of which is its history. There's an element of fabled legend in the fact that it was among the first vines to be planted in the Cape back in the 1600s, and that it is still the most widely planted grape in SA. For some time called "Steen", it enjoyed a rise to fame in the 1960s thanks to Lieberstein, a semi-sweet blend that was briefly the world's best-selling single brand of wine.

Since then, however, consumer trends have changed dramatically and Chenin has endured a somewhat maligned reputation since it became fashionable to drink "bone-dry" wines. Because of the repute of "Steen", associated with "sweet", Chenin was misunderstood for quite some time as being a sort of noxious swill capable of inducing fearsome hangovers.

Even today, if you mention Chenin, you're likely to get a non-committal response of, "Well, it's either really good or really bad, with not much middle ground in between." Our star ratings certainly provide evidence to uphold the former, and as for the latter, perhaps this could be said of any variety that isn't made with due care and quality diligence.

With Sauvignon Blanc having taken a large part of centre stage and shown off for so long, competing for the limelight with rambunctious sister Chardonnay, I'm grateful that Chenin is now making its presence felt, almost in the manner of a middle child, providing an unassuming, pleasant divergence from the usual attention demanded by its relatives.

We have the good fortune to have yet another choice in flavours, another outlet to accompany our multifaceted musings, our strange fascination and continual quest for never-ending variations on food or mood situations.